water we get in our homes needs to
be drinking water quality, and yet
we use this water for everything.

There’s a movement around theworld to treat water on a fit-for-purpose basis.”One idea, is to turn blackwater(toilet water) and organic matterput down the kitchen sink via agarburator into methane gas or asource of nutrients. “All that foodand fecal residue is actually goodenergy,” notes Ashbolt. “Why notuse it?” Graywater (shower, dish,laundry wastewater) could befiltered and simply treated (butnot made drinkable) for reuse intoilets and washing machines oras irrigation water. The result: lessenergy to move and treat water,less drinking water piped to homes,and little contamination to lakesand rivers.

Cities such as Hamburg, Germany
and Stockholm, Sweden are already
doing this. However, it means
changes to household plumbing,
smaller sewers, and different
firefighting options. Similar changes
would be needed in Canada.

What we’re doing now with waterservices is not sustainableSmall communities often get their water from groundwater or small streams and lakes that are moreeasily contaminated than big city supplies. Remote communities and rural areas in Alberta face thischallenge every day, mostly without the high-tech water treatment facilities available in cities. Researchin Alberta may be the ticket to safe and clean water, whether in a First Nations community in Alberta, abig American city or a rural village in India.

University of Alberta engineering professor Sushanta Mitra leads the Global Integrated Water
Management Network, which is developing affordable water monitoring and treatment tools that can
reach far more people around the world. “You can have the latest and greatest technology,” he says,
“but if it’s too expensive or too impractical, it just won’t work.”
A perfect example is Mitra’s sensor technology that quickly tests for potentially deadly E. coli bacteria
in water. The hand-held device gives an answer in about 15 minutes. Normally test results would take

24 to 48 hours in a lab. “This is maybe OK if you’re near the lab,” notes Mitra. “But in many places in
Canada and around the world, transportation of water samples to a suitable lab is a challenge.”
The monitoring device has been field tested in Canada and India, and is currently in a trial in Seattle.